Septic Tank 'soak away' in neighbouring land!!

sujsuj

House I am planning to buy was a property in a very large plot (~10 acre). Over the years its being divided and now I have 1 acre land with house. One issue I have due to these historic association with the neighbouring grass land is my septic tank 'soak away' is in adjacent (behind ) grass land!!  What should I do..? Current owners says  they took out an indemnity insurance on purchase due to the 'soak away' being on neighbouring land.  This has never caused any issues so far. land behind is field and no chance of any property development in the near future (my guess ). Should I take same approach as current owner..?  Not clearly understood 'Soak away' as current house got public sewage system. This historic association how could affect me legally on contamination claims etc..? Any guidance/inputs highly appreciated. thanks.

greatcrested

* if the house is on the public sewage system, what is the relevance of the soak away? Is it actually in use? Why do you have a septic tank?

* Do the deeds show a right to use the neighbouring field? If not, what will you do if the owner decides to deny you access/use or builds or whatever?

* do the deeds show a right of access to the land to maintain the soak away (probably actually a 'drainage field' - a soak away is for clear water eg off the roof)

* is the drainage field operating correctly (they do fail....)?

* is the drainage field compliant with the new 2020 General Binding Rules?

* what does the 'indemnity insurance' insure you against?

* contamination claims? See the new 2020 General Binding Rules - on change of ownership a sewage system must be brought up to the required standard (if it does not already comply), so once that is done, contamination will not be a problem....

And just to hijack this thread (though it may prove useful to OP too), does anyone know a good independant source of comparative information between different Small Sewage reatment Plants?

There are so many different manufacturers, with many different modes of operation, taht choosing is a nightmare.

Each manufacturer's website naturally extolls their own virtues, and installers are not much better as they each tend to specialise in 2, max 3) systems so just say how great those are.

Which? Consumer Association does not seem to have produced a report on this important but rather specialised area!

ProDave

On the latter question, if buying a treatment plant buy one that works on the air blower principle.  If the air blower breaks it's simple and cheap to replace or repair.

Avoid the ones that have moving mechanical parts down in the smelly stuff, you do not want to be the one repairing those parts WHEN they go wrong.

AdrianC

ProDave said:

On the latter question, if buying a treatment plant buy one that works on the air blower principle.  If the air blower breaks it's simple and cheap to replace or repair.

Avoid the ones that have moving mechanical parts down in the smelly stuff, you do not want to be the one repairing those parts WHEN they go wrong.

And, if there's an option to put the pump externally, do so... That makes the change trivially easy, in exchange for a small plastic rabbit hutch on top of a paving slab.

Davesnave

If the house is no longer dependent on the tank and associated drain field it's likely the tank will have been emptied and no further contaminated run-out will occur. If so, there should be no issues in the future. The house has probably acquired a prescriptive to discharge there given the long history, but again, that's academic if the mains sewerage system is now used, unless the system's been adapted to take roof and/or surface water.

Indemnity? Cheap and possibly useless pain in the bum, but just get it if your solicitor advises.

sujsuj

Current house use public sewage system, One I am planning to buy have this issue. 

No mention of this in deeds..!!

Need to find from current owner indemnity against what they have

Davesnave

Your current house is irrelevant and probably shouldn't have been mentioned, as it's confused some of us.

As mentioned above, the house probably has a right to discharge into the drain field if that's been going on for 20 years. I have a neighbour who discharges on my land and I can't interfere for that reason. There is no paperwork at all

However...my neighbour will have problems if they need to renew the drain field, because it doesn't meet the regulations for a fresh installation and probably cannot due to a nearby stream. For similar reasons, you ought to employ a drainage expert to examine the house's system and report, although it's usually not a massive problem to change from a septic tank system to one that works via a modern sewage treatment plant if required. The cost should be under £10k, but it ought to be factored into the price you pay, if it's likely to be needed.

greatcrested

sujsuj said:

Current house use public sewage system, One I am planning to buy have this issue. 

No mention of this in deeds..!!

Need to find from current owner indemnity against what they have

So current house is irrelevant....

My guess is the indemnity is either against the neighbour raising problems about you using his field, or less likely against the drainage field failing or needing replacing (hmmm.... unlikely to cover that cost!).

But I can't stress enough

1) the new 2020 rules are now very strict regarding how sewage can be dealt with - the old days of casual run off from septic tank to any old ditch, field or stream are outdated

2) the new rules must be followed whenever a property is bought or sold.

I'd recommend you get the system surveyed. Many companies offer this - here is an example (no particular recommendation):

https://wes.uk.net/off-mains-drainage-home-buyer-surveys/

sujsuj

Sorry for the confusion..inputs are highly ppreciated.

sujsuj

2020 rules are  applicable retrospectively?? This property is 90 years old. If need to comply 2020 rules to all old properties that's impossible right??

sujsuj

Also I was told septic tank is emptied every 2 years which seems to be a pain. I thought its 5 or 6 years normally. May be tank is small